This bonus has expired, click here to view the best current checking bonuses.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $150
- Availability: Enter zip code to see eligibility
- Direct deposit required: None
- Additional requirements: Debit purchases, see below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Mixed reports, likely doesn’t pull
- Credit card funding: Can fund up to $50 online
- Monthly fees: $10, waivable
- Early account termination fee: None, don’t close account straight away please
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: September 15, 2017
Contents
The Offer
- Receive a sign up bonus of $150 when you open a new checking account with Wells Fago and within 60 days complete both of the following two requirements:
- Make 10 debit card purchases/payments.
- Make two purchases that total at least $10 using the Wells Fargo Debit Card loaded to your mobile wallet.
Geographic Eligibility
Enter your zip code to check eligibility. The following areas are eligible:
Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Boise, ID; Charlotte, NC; Colorado Springs, CO; Columbus, GA; Denver, CO; Fresno-Visalia, CA; Ft. Wayne, IN; Greensboro, NC; Greenville, NC; Greenville, SC-NC; Harrisburg, PA; Hartford & New Haven, CT; Jacksonville, FL; Las Vegas, NV; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; Monterey-Salinas, CA; Norfolk, VA; Omaha, NE; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Reno, NV; Richmond-Petersburg, VA; Roanoke-Lynchburg, VA; Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle-Tacoma, WA; Spokane, WA; W. Palm Beach, FL.
The Fine Print
- Not eligible for bonus if you are: 1) a current owner on a Wells Fargo consumer checking account; 2) a Wells Fargo team member; 3) a recipient of a consumer checking bonus in the past 12 months (limit 1 bonus per customer)
- Bonus available in-branch or online
- Initial deposit of $25 required during account opening
- Transactions at an ATM or purchases/payments made using your checking account number and routing transit number through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) do not count as a debit card purchase/payment
- The mobile wallet purchases can be made with Wells Fargo Wallet for Android, Android Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay
- Offer cannot be paid without providing a valid (W-9) and U.S. taxpayer ID number
- Offer can not be combined with any other consumer deposit offer
- Bonus will post to your new checking account within 45 days after eligibility and qualifications have been met
- You are responsible for any federal, state, or local taxes due on your bonus and we will report as income to the tax authorities as required
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fee
The Everyday Checking account comes with a $10 monthly fee. Get the fee waived with one of the following:
- 10 debit card purchases and/or payments each statement cycle from this checking account, OR
- Direct deposits totaling $500 or more each statement cycle, OR
- Maintain a $1,500 minimum daily balance, OR
- Link checking account to a Wells Fargo Campus ATM or Campus Debit Card
If you have a Wells mortgage, you might be able to get a higher-level account with no fees.
Early Account Termination Fee
There is no early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
Hopefully, most readers got in on the $250 Wells bonus earlier this year which disqualifies them from this bonus, as per the terms. If not, this is an easy $150 bonus.
I’m skeptical if we’ll see the $250 back, but who knows or maybe it’ll be back as a more targeted thing. Maybe the best plan is to keep an eye on this one until September (when it expires) and then pull the trigger if nothing better surfaces by then.
We’ll add this to our list of Best State-Specific Bank Bonuses.
Hat tip to r/churning
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
My Wells Fargo DP:
5/9: Tried opening Everyday Checking for $150 bonus in Harrisburg downtown branch. Was told I won’t get the bonus as I’m not a US citizen.
9/9: Applied as resident alien online. I don’t live in targeted zip, got into app with Harrisburg zip.
12/9: Account opened
18/9: Debit card in mail
1/10: Bought ten 25 cent ramens separately in local grocery store (self checkout, obviously)
10/12: Opened business checking in Harrisburg mall branch while visiting with no id but the personal debit card. Have no proper business either, actually my visa doesn’t allow me to do business legally.
10/18: Got $300 business bonus after $500 transfer from PNC.
10/20: Called about the personal bonus and realized I’d missed the NFC transactions.
10/22: Didn’t have a phone with NFC, so bought an LG Phoenix 2 at Walmart.
10/28: Used the phone without a connection to buy a sub at Subway for $3 with Android pay.
10/29: Used Wells Fargo wallet for $8 at Staples. Got $10 WF wallet incentive immediately.
11/2: $150 bonus in personal account. Returned the phone to Walmart (inside 14 days).
The business bonus was damn easy, but had to put in effort for the personal bonus due to not having NFC in my phone. Never had an account with WF before, will close these before next statement (never payed a fee). Thanks WF for the $460, and as always, thanks DoC.
Updated/New $200 bonus
https://bonusoffer.wf.com/get200
from /u/hiima on https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/76zd8q/wells_fargo_200_checking_bonus_exp_112217_10/
nice! seems like there’s several links:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/jump/checking/prospect-offer/
https://bonusoffer.wf.com/get200
https://bonusoffer.wf.com/get300
i wonder if they really are enforcing that 12month language nowadays
Great!
I have gotten the I got the default $50 bonus (Jul 2016),
then the $250 bonus (Feb 2017),
followed by the $500 bonus (May 2017).
But I did not get the $150 bonus (Jul 2017) which was geo-restricted and not available in Northern VA.
Since the the $300 one is available in DC, I am going to close my existing one and apply in a week. Let’s see.
goodluck!
btw do you use the same old login whenever u app for a ‘new’ WF account?
I went to two branches today to apply for this $150.00 bonus offer, however, I got mix answers. One branch do no see the offer, only offer he said is $50.00 for a checking account, another $50.00 for a saving account, a total of $100.00. Showed him my offer through my email with the code directly from DOC’s link, even showed him the website. He was suspicious that this could be a scam. He called Wells Fargo directly for information on this bonus. The representative told the guy that this offer is only available to the ones who are already have an existed account. The guy even asked his manager, to then find out that the manager do not know anything about this bonus offer. Did not open any account with this branch. From that point, I decided to go another branch to see if they knew what bonus I am talking about. The lady went to ask her manager and then talked to me about the bonus. She said as long the bonus code is directly from Wells Fargos online website or and offering through mail/email.. I showed my email with the code, she said that this email is not from Wells Fargo, rather from someone else and that offer cannot be from a blog. I explained to her that that there is direct link to an offer, and put your information, a code will generate for this bonus offer. She said it is invalid. Now I am lost. Is this offer legit or just that these two bankers do not know what the heck they are talking about?
is your zip code eligible? check that first. if yes, forget going to your local dumb bankers. just apply online. it’s legit! verbiage about the bonus offer was even present in my initial emails ~ Status: Your application has been approved, and your new account is eligible to receive a bonus offer. For more details, see the Bonus Offer Disclosure and Additional Requirements.
Yes, my zip code is eligible. It generated a code. But I guess the rep I talked didn’t know jack crap.
I’m stuck at the Android Pay stage, could someone help me out? I don’t have NFC on my phone (at least I don’t know where to find it) but could install Android pay and added the WF card to it. Now what should I do? From the above comments, it seems I can’t use it at the store (no NFC), but can I use it online to trigger the bonus? I regularly order from Domino’s, and just the last day the man at the local store told me that I could pay with Android pay while ordering from the app. But how do I do that exactly and most importantly, can I do that at all? My understanding is that NFC is required fro only in-store purchases, but online purchases should still go through on a non-NFC phone. Is that not the case?
I have local WF branches but my zip is not targeted.
Any success with receiving the promo code email and open in my local non-targeted branch?
The closest targeted branch is 1.5 hrs away, a bit far to invest for $150, but I need to open a WF anyways bc I need it to trigger my recently opened Chase acct, hate to open one without the promo. Thanks.
Regarding the two mobile wallet payments, DoC sez “make two purchases that total at least $10 using the Wells Fargo Debit Card loaded to your mobile wallet.” The official terms say “the 2 debit card purchases with the mobile wallet must be a cumulative of at least $10”.
However, I see a lot of people posting here about making $10+ mobile wallet payments. I know the 10 normal debit card transactions have to be $10+ each, but I was under the impression that the two mobile pay payments had to amount to over $10 combined. I thus made two for about $6 each. However, now I’m starting to wonder… I just made my tenth debit card transaction today and it’s still pending, so I will report back if/when my bonus posts.
I still have 12 days left to meet the requirements, so maybe I should make a couple more mobile pay purchases >$10, but I don’t really want to if it’s not necessary. Can anyone here confirm that two mobile pay transactions <$10 totaling $10+ together work?
For anyone trying to keep this account fee free, I noticed on my first statement that trial deposits from Key, BMO, and Chase all coded as Direct Deposit. An actual transfer from Key also coded as DD.
DP: Opened Preferred Checking in-branch (CA) using a code from the promotion website. I don’t live in the targeted area, but one of the targeted areas is over 100 miles away. 10 Amazon reloads and two $10 WF Wallet transactions posted by 08/07/2017. I received $10 WF Wallet bonus and $150 Account Bonus on 08/08/2017. This was my first checking with WF. The promotion was for Everyday Checking Account.
Online application is dead (I live in one of the target areas) but it will still generate a code for an in-branch opening.
Data point: Used promotional zip code to get into the application, then used real zip code to fill it out
Received $150 promotional bonus
Bonus did not post until 3 weeks after I had made mobile purchases (used Samsung Pay & WF Mobile Wallet, neither shows Mobile in purchase coding)
Amazon $0.5×10
This gives me hope – I am at the end of week 1 after completing Apple Pay transactions.